Dear Readers: The Mexican wants to beat you to the carne asada case this Labor Day fin de semana, so behold two oldies-but-goodies I amazingly haven’t yet passed off as new in this columna. The first one is extant and one of the favorite questions the Mexican ever got; for the second respuesta I’ve added some thoughts at the end, given it dates to 2007 yet the question is, like the Mexican lust for gabachas, eternal. Enjoy, and eat 11 tacos de chorizo for your favorite Mexican, wontcha?
Dear Mexican: Whatever happened to the “lazy Mexican”? Now all I hear is that they’re taking our jobs.
Ronnie Racist
Dear Gabacho: Isn’t that the stupidest paradox? Really: How can someone simultaneously be a yeoman and a layabout unless he’s Shaquille O’Neal? But accusing ethnics of being both is America’s most cherished immigrant insult. Every group felt its contradictory sting: Chinese (opium smokers or railroad coolies), Irish (drunks or ward bosses), Scandinavians (oafs or Vikings), Italians (slum dwellers or Mafiosi), Jews (rag-picking parasites or international bankers) and now Mexicans. The insult’s popularity draws its venom from our Puritan forefathers, who considered life outside of labor sin: it’s a miracle the phrase on Auschwitz’s gate, Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Brings Freedom), isn’t inscribed on the Capitol Dome. What’s strange, though, is how modern-day gabachos forgot the Protestant work ethic long ago; meanwhile, immigrants continue to pick up Max Weber’s flame without forgetting to enjoy life. Bested in both works and pleasure, gabachos seethe, grow fat and elect evangelicals—and don’t get me started about faith without works and its relationship to American sloth.
I had a heated discussion in my van pool with a couple of gringos in which they made a comment that immigration (both legal and illegal) needs to stop. I replied jokingly, “Then who will take our orders at McDonald’s, or work in the fields?” They had the nerve to tell me there are several Americans willing to work those jobs, especially in the fields. I laughed. Wasn’t there a study a couple of years ago in which they sent Americans who were collecting unemployment to pick strawberries, and they all quit within a week?
Pocha From the Central California Coast
Dear Gabacho: Many readers have asked the Mexican about the study you cite, but I’ve yet to verify its existence. This makes me believe it’s an urban legend along the lines of successful Guatemalans, or Mexican women taking it up the ass to keep their virginity. Besides, who needs a mythical study proving gabachos don’t work in agriculture when the government has documented this phenomenon? Consider the Department of Labor’s 2005 National Agricultural Workers survey. The finding that’s pertinent to us: 83 percent of America’s agricultural workers identified as “Hispanic,” and Mexicans constituted the vast majority of that figure. Gabachos, meanwhile, accounted for only 3 pinche percent of all fruit and vegetable gatherers. Many factors besides laziness can explain why gabachos won’t take these jobs—terrible wages and working conditions, better employment opportunities for English speakers—but the fact remains that gabachos and crop picking go together as well as Mexicans and la migra. So, want to save America from the Aztlanistas, gabachos? Head for the fields and groves, wrap a bandanna around your face to fend off the pesticides, and start picking. And make sure there are no bruises on the fruit, lest the foreman dock you an hour’s pay. (Modern-day coda: this is exactly what hasn’t happened in the years since, which just happen to fall under the Great Recession. Farmers have BEGGED Americans to pick their crops because of a shortage of Mexican workers—and, nothing).
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This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2013.
Seems like your racism has toned down a little in the last 5 years. I just picture all the little white liberals lapping it up and asking you for more.
Pro tip: most Mexicans aren’t racist, so don’t let this one example start a stereotype.
Back here in real life, mine has been enriched by a few of those immigrants who worked hard, long and smart without forgetting to enjoy life. Am I being racist in thinking people with whom I have many differences can be a source of important learning? I think, rather, that people like Bslap just don’t enjoy the fact they are not the sole crown of creation.
This article is ludicrous in every respect. Racial stereotypes are, of course, an unfortunate part of racism and the “lazy Mexican” is one. It was a common slur that I heard most of 70 years ago, in large part (I thought at the time) based on the fact that there were a number of Mexican men sitting around the public places in Bisbee. They were there seeking work, not loafing. As employment opportunities came during World War II, these same men became proud and productive citizens.
That aside, illegal immigration is wrong and should be stopped in a reasonable manner. Those here now have no true legal standing to remain in the US and as such should return or be returned to their country of origin where they can, then, begin the process to return as legitimate immigrants.
Holding views that make generalizations about any race ( race is ) is racism. Whether you’re white and racist against Mexicans, Mexican and racist against whites, it’s still racism. That was my point. If I write a column calling Mexicans wetbacks and saying they’re too lazy to go to school, you would rightly call me a racist. So how would that be different than this guy calling whites gabachos and saying they’re too lazy and fat to pick crops?
Words hurt the psyche. Gabacho is an ethnic slur.